Facebook user claims what is being reported on Ecuador TV is not the whole story about quake recovery

The following is a post from a Facebook group posted on April 25/2016. The information is provided by the poster. LAC has not verified the information and takes no responsibility for the veracity of the post. It is presented for informational purposes and opinion of the poster.

Justin Graceful shared LevantateEcuador’s video.
6 hrs

I’ve spoken to a family member who is a high level officer in the national police. He says, what is being reported on the national EC tv’s is not the whole story. I cannot verify any of this, other than he is my relative and has no reason to lie. If anything, he could lose his job or worse, be arrested for telling me this…

1) He states that politicians are coming in to these towns, taking photo ops, then leaving, without doing anything.

2) The private donations which are being sent directly to the disaster zones in hopes of bypassing the bureaucracy so that the aid gets to those in need quicker is constantly being thwarted by Government agencies, stating that they (the govt) needs to organize the relief efforts. So what they have been doing is taking these donations (water, food, etc), re-routing it to the local storage / distribution facility set up by the government, then everything is labeled as coming from the government. Then it is distributed. So the credit is then given to the government for ‘helping’. When in fact, had it not been for the kind and generous donations of the Ecuador people, there would not be as many items to donate. Which is completely understood. But for the government to state that these items are coming from them, well, that kind of distorts things.

3) Very minimal if any mention of the international support given to the rescue efforts by the Columbians, Mexicans, Cubans, and Japanese who have all sent skilled and trained rescue teams to assist. Apparently, more rescues have been done by these 4 countries (majority by Mexican & Columbian) than any of the Ecuadorian forces, which are NOT trained in such rescue operations. So one wonders why do we only see the Quito Bomberos in the news. Yes, they were the first responders and did alot, but most have already returned, and those who remained are the one’s who are not being mentioned.

4) Military and Police are constantly being told to stand down, and representatives from the various government agencies (who are not trained in such operations) are calling the shots. Talking to the news (esp int’l) is prohibited, without direct approval from the presidents press representative. The military and police authorities, who have more experience with large operations, are not being utilized to their full potential. This is causing a lot of resentment among these officials, and some have purportedly just left. They want to help, and they want to use their experience to help, but the various ministries and agencies are not making it easier. This in turn is causing a lot of confusion at the various relief sites.

5) He does say that the U.S. Government has been crucial in providing top notch support in these rescue efforts. Apache helicopters with special sonar are being deployed from Columbia. They’ve also set up numerous state of the art medevac stations, and are saving a lot of lives. The same is being said of Japan, China, and France.

Well, that’s all I have for now. Again, I cannot verify any of this. Just repeating what I was told by a relative who is a high ranking officer in the national police. We are considering sending some camera operators to see what we can film, but he says many are being escorted away or restricted from certain areas. Especially anything that is managed by the EC Government. However, we are free to film U.S. and other similar operations from other countries without issue. It seems Ecuador is the only one concerned with controlling the press coverage. READ POST ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/groups/EcuadorExpats/permalink/10153965787551140/

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